Review: Teaching Graphic Novels: Practical Strategies for the Secondary ELA Classroom (2010)

Abstract

As politics and regulation play increasingly central roles in high school curricula, the English teacher faces more time constraints in the teaching of literacy. ELA teachers are consistently encouraged by the state and school administration to encourage creative learning of literacy even with regulation. In Teaching Graphic Novels: Practical Strategies for the Secondary ELA Classroom, Katie Monnin proposes the use and implementation of graphic novels to bolster all aspects of literacy in the English Language Arts classroom. Monnin explores the current ELA curriculum and the advice needed to include visual print storytelling to increase students’ awareness and understanding of many types of literacy. As an experienced professor of literacy at the University of South Florida, Monnin approaches this book with the attempt to increase the awareness of several new teaching styles facilitated by the visual arts. Her strengths come from her ability to increase student literacy while simultaneously training the teacher to understand how graphic novels can be utilized in ELA classrooms. This book incorporates previously published material on graphic novels and media literacy while organizing the information in a coherent, well laid-out textbook. Monnin organizes the book into two major sections; chapter one ambitiously covers an introduction to graphic novels including historical information as well as terminology. Chapters two through six address different types of graphic novel literacy and advance through several different genres. In the introductory chapter, the book introduces to teachers unfamiliar with graphic novels a platform in which to proceed through the book. The appendices included in the text are pre-made handouts that make up half the book. At times, chapter one seems to be a companion to Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. A teacher unfamiliar with McCloud’s work will find the references necessary, as the McCloud book was not written for pedagogical interpretation. Throughout chapter one, Monnin adapts McCloud’s glossary of terms into an organized and well-charted breakdown and turns the novel reader into a graphic novel reader. She uses excerpts and examples from existing graphic novels such as Nick Abadzis’ Laika and Hope Larson’s Chiggers to teach the reader how to comprehend the graphic novel. Written in an approachable format with stylized fonts and cartoon shapes, Monnin strives to encourage ELA teachers new to the graphic novel medium to become comfortable with the content format. After getting acclimated to the graphic novel vocabulary, she takes the reader into an in depth pedagogical understanding of the different modes of using graphic novels to teach. Monnin starts with reading comprehension, an important first step, and breaks comprehension into “three windows” which “allow readers to enter, inhale and comprehend the reading experience” (p. 15). In chapters two through six, the book is divided into Middle School ELA and High School ELA sections. As she progresses, she continually refers to Appendix handouts and guides the ELA teacher in the process of the assignments. Monnin stays consistent with NCTE Standards (ncte.org/standards), having the students “apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate and appreciate texts” including the use of context and graphics. ELA teachers have two major concerns in the definition of literacy: what literature is defined as valuable and whose literature is valuable (p. xix).